LIBC Sylvius Lecture: Julian F. Thayer

Cognitive control and emotional regulation: A neurovisceral integration perspective

The neurovisceral integration model (Thayer & Lane, 2000) posits that cardiac vagal tone, indexed by heart rate variability (HRV), can indicate the functional integrity of the neural networks underlying emotion-cognition interactions. Our recent findings begin to disentangle how HRV is associated with both top-down and bottom-up cognitive processing of emotional stimuli. Higher resting HRV is associated with more adaptive and effective top-down and bottom-up cognitive modulation of emotional stimuli and with cognitive control, which may facilitate emotion regulation. However, lower resting HRV is associated with hyper-vigilant and maladaptive cognitive responses to emotional stimuli, which may impede emotion regulation. We review recent findings that shed light on the relationship between HRV and top-down and bottom-up visual perception and attention to emotional stimuli, which may play an important role in emotion regulation. Further implications of HRV on individual well-being and mental health are discussed.